There is increasing archaeological evidence that deer were being systematically cropped or “ranched” much earlier than has been previously supposed. In the Mediterranean region, fallow deer (Dama danm dama), made a sudden appearance on several islands at the same time as sheep, goats and pigs, and subsequently their bones make up 70 percent of those found at Neolithic sites between 6000 and 200...

a three month-old-male red deer calf (cervus elaphus maral) was examined post mortem for the cause of death in arasbaran preserved area in east azerbaijan in september 2006. the main history of the case was the lack of colostrum intake after birth. the necropsy 6 hours after death, revealed severe general congestion especially in lungs and visceral organs (liver and jejunum). the cut surface of...

Johne's disease (JD) infection, caused by Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis, represents a major disease problem in farmed ruminants. Although JD has been well characterized in cattle and sheep, little is known of the infection dynamics or immunological response in deer. In this study, typing of M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis isolates from intestinal lymphatic tissues from 74 JD-infe...

Deer antlers are costly structures subjected to directional sexual selection that may be sensitive to heterozygosity. However, a relationship between heterozygosity and antler development has only been found for select protein-coding loci and MHC genes in one deer species (the white-tailed deer Odocoileus virginianus). Here, we study the relationship between multilocus heterozygosity at 11 micr...

BACKGROUND Red deer (Cervus elaphus) is regarded as an epidemiologically relevant host for Mycobacterium bovis (M. bovis) and closely related members of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex that cause animal tuberculosis (TB). The standard antemortem screening test for the detection of TB in deer is the intradermal tuberculin skin test, but the detection of interferon-gamma (IFNγ) produced by...

Although most commonly associated with the infection of domestic livestock, the replication of pestiviruses, in particular the two species of bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV), occurs in a wide range of free ranging cervids including white-tailed deer, mule deer, fallow deer, elk, red deer, roe deer, eland and mousedeer. While virus isolation and serologic analyses indicate that pestiviruses a...

The main goal of our study was to determine the prevalence of Anaplasma phagocytophilum infections in wild cervids living in north-eastern part of Poland. Material used in the study was gathered between the years 2004- 2008. The blood samples from 106 red deer (Cervus elaphus), 32 sika deer (Cervus nippon hortulorum), 130 fallow deer (Dama dama) and 31 roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) were collec...

Three male F1 hybrids between Père David's deer and red deer were mated to red deer to produce 143 backcross calves. The pedigrees are a rare example of a fertile hybrid between evolutionarily divergent species. We examined the use of these families for genetic mapping of evolutionarily conserved (Type I) loci by testing for genetic linkage between five species-specific protein variants and 12 ...

Deer antlers are the only mammalian appendage capable of regeneration. We aimed to investigate the effect of red deer antler extract in regulating hair growth, using a mouse model. The backs of male mice were shaved at eight weeks of age. Crude aqueous extracts of deer antler were prepared at either 4 °C or 100 °C and injected subcutaneously to two separate groups of mice (n = 9) at 1 mL/day fo...

In late 1986 an official deer hunting regime in the Murchison Mountains, Fiordland, was compared with two commerical aerial hunting regimes in the adjacent Stuart Mountains by measuring the density of deer faecal pellet groups. Overall densities in the Stuart Mountains were twice those in the Murchison Mountains. Official hunting appeared to be more effective than commercial hunting at reducing...